Trees! Well, two more anyway.

Left work early last Friday because (1) the back yard had spent two weeks drying out thanks to all the ridiculously nice weather we've been having, (2) the weather people said it would be raining all weekend (suprise, they were wrong), and (3) it occurred to me that I had spent the holiday last Monday working, and I wanted to recoup that time. So I went home and visited with my mom, sister, Laura's mom, and of course Laura (they were all visiting to help stitch together some new curtains), had lunch, and planted a tree. Finally we have some green in the back yard! And yesterday I planted a second one!



I had previously planted one of the Chinese Pistache, but they are deciduous and currently have no leaves (they're just sticks right now). The two fern pines (Podacarpus), by contrast, are evergreen, and add a nice splash of green life to our sad, dull, brown back yard. A quick glance at the other back yards I can see from my back yard shows me that ours is the first to have anything planted. Which is a little sad because the other houses on our side of the street have been inhabited about a year longer than ours. Maybe they all had the same problems I had. Or not.


The most fun I had during the whole process happened at two different times. Friday afternoon I was removing lodgepoles from the first tree I planted because they were too far apart. One came out no problem. The other gave me trouble. I rocked it back and forth in an attempt to loosen it, and on one of the rocks I pulled too hard, causing it to snap near the ground. When it broke loose it whacked my right ear, which hurt ... a bit, but luckily did no visible damage.

The second fun event happened Sunday evening as I was driving lodgepoles into the ground for the second fern pine. I'm up on a ladder, pile driving the pole with this heavy tool that you use by sliding it up, then forcible driving it down. One one up stroke it came off the pole, and on the subsequent down stroke it, of course, struck the top of the pole. Having no where else to go, it rocked sideways, and came to rest on my head. Actually it broke the plastic strap of the earmuffs I was wearing to deaden the sound of the pile driving, and left a pleasant little lump on my nogging. Best part of it all was that I managed to NOT fall off the ladder and break ... something ... following the thump, which did kinda make me feel silly for a half second. Anyway, no sickness or follow-up ill effects, just the realization of stupidity on my part.

Ramble machine off. Sorry about the length of today's post.

New Era ... the Alexander Dennis arrives at Unitrans

Stopped by the Unitrans garage VERY briefly today to take a look at the new Alexander Dennis Enviro double deck bus. I had hoped that Dave Orca or Andy Wyly (the two people I still know well enough to hang out and chat) would be there and I could gab a while about the new bus. They weren't around, but I introduced myself to Sean (a mechanic) and he was more than happy to let me walk around inside the bus and check it out.

Picture the Daimlers, only brand new, awesome, comfortable, with power steering, cameras (everywhere), and (I'm guessing) way more enjoyable to drive. And they are freakin' huge! They seat ... 81 people? The air conditioning system at the rear of the bus is MASSIVE, and it's a tandem rear axle, so this this is ready to do some serious student hauling.

I need to get back out there when one of my people is around, and hopefully, perhaps, maybe they'll let me take it for a spin around the pad.

I've already got visions of a new bus poster in my head ... featuring the new Enviro and 1014. I need to get in touch with Geoff and whether I can set something up.

Family Baby Shower

(Author's Note: This blog entry really should have been posted on Saturday, Jan 30th, right after Laura's baby shower ended. These are the thoughts that I was having at that time, so just assume that the date you see associated with this blog says 1/30/10.)

I honestly feel blessed and lucky. Too often I complain about my back yard or my work or some other nonsense. Today Laura had a baby shower to celebrate the coming of our first child, a boy whose name we honestly not yet determined. We probably had 30 people at our house, friends, family, people all gathered around to celebrate the coming of our kid. I was sitting on the couch much later that evening after everyone had left, and I was washed over with a feeling of wholeness, of hope, and even of love.

I know I'm getting really cheesy here, but in that moment it really sank in ... just how fortunate Laura and I are to have so many wonderful relationships. So many people who care about us, who care about our child to be, and who let us care about them. It it a truely amazing thing to have such good friends and family, and to be able to share our experiences with them all.

I sat there and soaked up the bliss, thinking to myself how it's such a damn shame that so many of life's nuances block the observation of this feeling. I bet that this feeling is always there, but that it's hard for someone like me to really know it and appreciate it when I am most often paying my attention towards so many other psychological debts.

Anyway, the point is just that I wanted to give thanks to everyone for coming. I know that most of them won't read this, but somehow, in some way I wanted to reflect the warmth and humility I felt in that moment back out to the world.

I can't believe I'm about to be a father!

aaaaahhhhhh freak out!

I am officially, totally, completely, and truely in freak-out mode right now. And somehow I'm still calm.

My first child is effectively due any day now (Laura is at 36 weeks as of two days ago), and that is the coolest, most important thing that is happening. And knocking at my door every second is my work load, which, after taking another look at my schedule just now, shows me that in order to hit an upcoming milestone, I have ... today ... to do about three weeks of design work before I have to order the fabrication of parts. And of course you have to order parts before you can get them, and you have to get them before you can assemble them, then they have to be tested and deemed okay before they can be installed on the bigger vehicle and tested there.

I'm bothered by the fact that work is so dominating my life right now. And I know that when the kid shows up, it'll be a slap in the face that breaks my mental lock on work and makes me totally put my focus on him, my wife, and the fact that we will have become a family. But right now I'm developing symptoms of hypertension.